LEBANON — During a recent game against visiting Hanover High, Lebanon basketball guard Catherine Cole drove the lane and absorbed a swat to the face as she leaped, only to realize upon landing that one of her contact lenses had been knocked out of her eye.
At least Cole wasn’t wear the spectacles she wore as an elementary school player. Those glasses darkened in response to the available illumination and were far from fashionable.
“They would turn black in bright light,” Cole recalled with a rueful chuckle. “I was not in my prime.”
Cole might be there now, however. The Raiders’ leading scorer and the sixth-best in NHIAA Division II at 16 points per game, she can do it all for a team she sometimes has to figuratively carry on the back of her No. 10 jersey.
“The way Catherine goes, the rest of the team goes,” said first-year coach Chris Boucher. “She’s a shooting guard, but she’s also one of our best post players and our leading rebounder.”
Cole led Lebanon to a 44-18 defeat of visiting Manchester West on Friday night, scoring 13 points in little more than a half of play. She scored 20 points during a victory at Milford on Wednesday and 18 during a loss to visiting Hanover a day later.
The Raiders conclude the regular season next week by finishing a stretch of nine games in 15 days.
“We’ve used the mentality of winning every quarter and not looking ahead to the whole game,” Cole said. “That’s helped us a lot.”
Cole, at 5-foot-6, doesn’t come from a basketball family. Ian Smith, now her principal at Lebanon High, recalls Cole being raw but tenacious when he began coaching her on youth teams at the Carter Community Building Association’s Witherell Recreation Center.
Cole developed a smooth shooting stroke more quickly than many of her peers, however, and it remains her current calling card — an effortless flick of the wrist, often from 3-point range, that she said was burned into her muscle memory early on.
“I didn’t see it as a chore to practice,” Cole said. “I’d be 7 or 8 years old and dribbling on the hardwood floor in my house or lying on my back, flipping the ball up into the air to work on its rotation.”
Outside of the high school basketball season, Cole practices twice a week with a club team out of Derry, N.H. Team Saints travels as far as Texas and Alabama for tournaments, but Cole somehow manages to also compete for Lebanon’s soccer and lacrosse teams. Her parents drive her to and from club workouts, not wanting her to be behind the wheel after what’s usually a two-practice day.
“It’s a haul,” said Cole, who often attempts a nap on the ride home so she can finish her homework before going to sleep. “But my goal is to play at the next level, so that’s why I do it.”
Topping Cole’s wish list is NCAA Division III Connecticut College, along with two other schools at that level, Boston’s Suffolk University and Western New England in Springfield, Mass. Already accepted to the latter two institutions, Cole hopes to hear from the Camels and make her choice within the next few weeks.
“I wouldn’t be in the position I’m in without my teammates,” Cole said. “This isn’t my show, even though people sometimes think that. Our group does its best to include everyone and get the best shot possible.”
One doesn’t need the help of tinted eyeglasses to see that Cole is often that prime option.
Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com.